Automating Queries

I have to implement some tables for our shipping department. I know the
table that holds the shipping data in our system, which will be pulled from
the system using ODBC, but I have a few problems in figuring out the best
way to accomplish this task.

My problem is we use 2 distinct companies for our orders. So each company
will have a unique table containing the data for shipping their orders but
we have only one shipping department. What I would like to do is to make
copies of the tables, then merge them to be one single table. Next, copy
this merged table to an accessible place so that when the order comes
through, it can be scanned with a barcode reader, which will pull up the
shipping information, and the delivery information will be populated. The
additional issue with all of this is that because orders are constantly
being added to the system, I need to have a way of automating this so that
it runs on a fairly quick schedule approximately every 30 minutes or so.
Can this be done?

Yes, it's possible but it is dependent upon your circumstances.

We export our data to a cvs file and then import the data into our shipping
software. Our scanners are connected to the shipping software (UPS Worldship)
There is no reason why you couldn't do the same thing for two companies. It
only takes about 2 minutes each time we do this.

DavidS